Last night was a date with destiny.

I always wanted to see Mary J. Blige in concert but was always wary as I was unsure what it would be like. I've bought all her albums so I should have seen her by now but I suspect her 1998 live cd gave me pause. Although she sounded great there is a rapper onstage hollering over her like a cheerleader with Tourettes "Mary in da fuckin' house... make some noise muthafuckaaas". Charmed.

I have also found some of her output to be a bit variable, usually down to the ubiquitous love of the meandering mid-tempo ballad by r&b divas. Although MY LIFE is singled out by critics as her best album I found it a frustrating listen as for each gem there were 2 anonymous mid-tempo ballads to aurally wade through to get to them. This inconsistency was evident as late as 2003 when the excellent NO MORE DRAMA was followed up with the lacklustre LOVE & LIFE. But with back-to-back great albums THE BREAKTHROUGH and GROWING PAINS I decided that I needed to see her.

But again I was concerned - was the O2 arena going to be the best place to see her? Surely she was going to be a bit stranded there. HA! She appeared at the top of a staircase in the middle of the stage in a flash of fire and launched into "Grown Woman" from GROWING PAINS and within a few minutes I was hooked. She was fantastic!
We had lighting cues, video projections, pyrotechnics, girl dancers, costume changes. But here is the key... we had *a* costume change, the dancers came on for a chorus or two towards the end of the show then melted away, the video projections were tastefully done and although the fireworks and flares were nice to see... they really weren't needed. Mary supplied all the real pyrotechnics!

She tore into her back catalogue singing short versions of several of her songs including the fabulous "Real Love" which really needed to be longer. But after a while we started to get the full length versions of key songs - one more jaw-dropping than the last.She asked for our assistance in helping sing her cover of "I'm Going Down" and I must say we sounded pretty fierce as we also did on "Not Gon' Cry". She also sang an amazing solo version of "One" her hit duet with U2, a lovely "Everything", a thrilling "Fade Away" from GROWING PAINS.

It made me wonder why she has never really had the chart success or popular respect she deserves in this country as opposed to the synthetic Barbie's who usually lay claim to the tarnished word 'diva' after one album and an overdose of Junior Disprin. Maybe the fact is Mary is too raw, she is not a polished pop/r&b crossover. She personifies Ghetto Fabulous but her doubts and struggles are never far from the surface. Her music is informed by it, her onstage words are exhortions to be yourself and not be held down by what others feel they can mold you into. All of this culminated in a white-hot "No More Drama". I think it might have been the most exciting vocal performance I have ever seen.

But Mary is in a happier frame-of-mind now so she left us with three great 'up' songs - "Work That" and "Just Fine" (cannot tell you how much I love this song!) and as an encore her urban dance classic "Family Affair".

I always thought the comparisons with Aretha were over-reaching. I know better now.